Following the events in The Mutant Messiah:

After the downfall of The Society, Remy and Harper work to build a life together at the Xavier School, while the newly-liberated Genesis Mutants learn to adapt to their new reality in a world that is often hostile to them. Meanwhile, a new threat rises from the ashes.

Prologue

New Orleans

After arriving at the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, Remy LeBeau led his gaggle of loved ones to the car rental agency, where he'd earlier reserved two high-end sedans for them: A BMW Alpina B7 and an Audi A8. The Cajun X-Man known as Gambit claimed the BMW for himself, his lover Harper and Harper's 6 year old son, Christopher. The Audi was for their traveling companions: Bobby Drake, Harper's brother (and Bobby's doting boyfriend) Amadeo, the taciturn Cockney Jono Starsmore and mutant-turned-Vampire Jubilation Lee. Lee's toddler son, Shogo, was strapped into a car seat next to Christopher in the BMW.

Remy had decided that, after everything they'd gone through that year, they all deserved to spend the winter holidays in beautiful New Orleans, the city he loved, his home.

It had all started just eight months earlier, when Remy was traveling to New York. He'd chosen to drive, wanting to take his newly-restored 1957 Corvette out on the road. He'd made a stop for coffee at a little roadside diner in Mississippi. There, a terrified young man had been attacked by the diner's patrons after it was discovered he was a mutant. Remy had stepped in and saved the handsome, mysterious stranger.

That stranger was Harper, and he was trying to get to New York City. On foot. How he'd managed to make it from Corpus Christi, Texas to the town Remy had derisively christened Bumfuck, Mississippi without detection had impressed him. Still, knowing how dangerous such a journey was, especially for a mutant as young and amazingly beautiful as Harper, Remy offered to take him. It wasn't an imposition, he'd assured Harper; he was headed there anyway.

Over the next two days, Remy would come to learn Harper's tragic story: Harper was a runaway from a brutal organization that called itself The Society of Pet Fanciers. Despite the name, they were actually a group who had, for nearly five decades, been genetically engineering mutants to be sold as slaves to humans. "Pet" was the insulting appellation they'd given their captives, since the goal was to produce the perfect specimen through careful, selective breeding and genetic manipulation.

Harper was an empath, able to sense others emotions, and project his own onto them; it was this gift that had allowed him to form a bond with Remy. It had been more difficult for Harper to learn how to control his powerful pheromones. He could use them to induce fear, calm, desire, lust. And he was stunning to look at, to say the least. Like all of the so-called Pets, he'd been bred to be physically and aesthetically pleasing, to be passive, to submit to his owners.

Harper was feline in every way, with his large, sail-shaped ears, long tail and big green eyes with their ovoid pupils. He moved like a cat, too, languid and powerful, muscles rippling beneath his smooth skin, like a big jungle panther, and twice as deadly. Despite Harper's fear of being rejected by Remy, he had taken a chance, revealing the exact purpose for which he had been bred: to be a body slave, forced to endure the sexual abuse of his "owner", no matter how cruel or degrading the act. The Society had classified this type of slave as an Exotic. The others were Showers, Breeders and Workers.

Despite a lifetime of slavery, of cruel abuse and depredation, Harper's spirit was never broken. He was anything but submissive, and full of rage, set on extracting revenge for what the Society had done. His last owner, Jack Roddy, had come to understand that what was being done to Harper and all his people was wrong, and had set the young "Mutant Moses" on the path to freeing himself and his extended family from bondage.

With the help of the X-Men, Harper was able to carry out the mission to free his family, including his brother Amadeo, and young son, Christopher. Harper had left a lot of bodies in his wake, but it had cost him his empathic gift. Captured by the Society, their chief scientist, Dr. Vangelica, had performed a kind of lobotomy on him, removing that part of Harper's brain that had made him an empath.

It had been a traumatic loss for Harper, akin to suddenly going deaf. No longer could he "hear" other people's emotions. When Harper had realized it was gone, that his empathic link with Remy had been severed, it had nearly driven him mad with grief. Since then, he'd slowly adapted to his new reality, though he knew how difficult it would have been without Remy's fierce love.

The Society was gone now, its Patriarch was dead, its former members cowed by the fear of being publicly revealed as slave owners, and all the so-called Genesis Mutants had been taken in at the Xavier School. Surprising everyone, including himself, Remy and Harper were still a couple despite weathering some very serious challenges, absolutely devoted to one another and to Christopher. Together, they had made a little family together, Remy, Harper and Christopher, setting up house in an apartment at the school.

Harper's brother Amadeo was another of the Society's former slaves, a biomorph whose ability to heal was formidable, and grower stronger every day as he learned to control his mutant power. He and the Iceman, Bobby, had been dating, and it looked like things were getting pretty serious between them.

Jono, the X-Man's resident broody Brit - more colloquially known as Chamber - was another of their fellow X-Men. His body produced a ferocious psychokinetic fire, which had left him badly disfigured after it first manifested, tearing away his lower jaw and part of his chest. He and Jubilee, a mutant who had been given the Vampiric "gift" against her will, had finally admitted to themselves what everyone else had known for a long time: that they were in love with each other. Not surprising, it had been Lee who had made the first move, after weeks of watching Jono make himself crazy trying to work up the courage to tell her how he really felt.

Now, with the recent tragedies finally behind them, Remy had announced that he was taking them all on a much-needed and earned vacation, his treat. It wasn't a burden for Remy; after years as a high-end thief - a very lucrative career from which Remy was mostly retired - and some wise investments, Remy was filthy rich. And since he couldn't take any of it with him when he died, Remy reasoned, he might as well spend it on the people he loved.

Remy took the lead in the BMW, with Jono following in the Audi. The made their way through New Orleans to the Garden District, where Remy owned a beautiful, 18th Century plantation house of French design. It had originally belonged to his adoptive father, Jean-Luc LeBeau, the leader of the New Orleans Thieves Guild. He'd given the house to Remy as a gift years earlier.

"Wow! Look at this place! Fancy!" Lee cried as she climbed out of the Audi. Jono nodded at her as he lifted Shogo out of his carseat. The pudgy little boy pointed at the house and giggled.

*I take it that t'mean this meets wif yer approval, eh lad?* Jono, who communicated telepathically, ruffled Shogo's mop of hair. Shogo gave him the toddler version of the Stink Eye, which made Jono laugh. The sound was akin to a ratty old muffler, and suited the Goth boy, back-alley brawler. Jono was from a part of London called Cheapside, a real Bow-bell Cockney, though he'd definitely mellowed some over the years. After his powers had first manifested, he'd fallen into a serious funk for several years. It had only been with the love and support of his friends, especially Lee, that he'd finally started to enjoy life again.

"Oh I could sooooo get used to this," Lee grinned. She moved next to Jono, slid her hand down his back and gave his cute butt a pat. "Sure beats the the socks off the school. I mean, not that Xavier's isn't nice and all, but look at this place!"

"Wait 'til you see de inside, petite." Remy unlocked the trunk of the BMW and started unloading suitcases onto the sidewalk. "Better'n some musty old hotel, neh? And no Danger Room. We on vacation now, mes amis!"

"Holy crap, Remy," Bobby said, awed by the beautiful old house. "Does the owner know you're squatting in his mansion?"

Remy made an obscene gesture. "Don't be quittin' your day job, Frosty."

The LeBeau estate wasn't as big as some of the other, better-known homes in the District, but it was impressive enough. Originally a plantation, it had three floors and nineteen rooms, including five master suite-sized bedrooms, each with its own private bath. The formal dining room was as big as some people's houses. There was even a ballroom. Everything was true to period, including the furnishings and decor, except for the kitchen, which Remy had gutted and modernized.

"Don't listen to him. It's beautiful, Remy," Amadeo shielded his eyes against the late afternoon sun, admiring the architecture and all its exquisite little details.

"Gonna assume dat means y'all approve, neh?" Remy said, smiling. He was quite pleased with himself. "What you t'ink, Boo?" Remy asked, pulling Harper into his arms. "No complaints?"

"You are full of surprises, Monsieur LeBeau." Harper reached up and brushed a lock of Remy's wild auburn hair out of his face.

"DADDY! I wanna go inside!" Christopher was jumping up and down, tugging on both Remy and Harper's hands, excited to go exploring. He was a little carbon copy of Harper, right down to the ears and tail. The only difference was that while Harper's hair was a warm chestnut color, Christopher's was black as a raven's wing. He looked at Remy. "Please, Papa?"

Remy reached down and swung his petit boug up onto his shoulders. Christopher screamed with laughter. "Hand on tight to yo' Papa now, y'hear?" Remy said, chuckling with delight.

"Daddy, look at me! I'm taller than you!" Christopher waved at Harper.

"Yes, baby boy, I see you." Harper waved back. "Go on inside, We'll get the bags." He indicated to Amadeo and Bobby.

Amadeo was as beautiful as his brother, but that was where any similarity ended. Their personalities were completely different; where Harper was quiet, intense and struggled with his anger, Amadeo was sweet and kind and incredibly patient. He had to be, their friends reasoned, to be dating Bobby, a man known for his angst and occasional immaturity.

Taller than Harper, Amadeo was slender but well-built, with a broad chest that tapered down to a narrow waist. Silver-tinted lavender hair framed his angular face, while arching brows lifted over eyes the color of amethysts. Amadeo was well-matched with Bobby, even if it had come as a surprise to all their friends when the two started dating. Bobby had only recently come out as gay, still navigating those difficult emotional waters when Amadeo had pretty much dropped right into his lap. Amadeo was good for Bobby, the gentle Yang to Bobby's boisterous Yin.

"How'd we get stuck with baggage duty? And what the HELL is in here?" Bobby grunted as he lifted a large cooler from the Audi's trunk. It was marked "Fragile - Medical Supplies".

"Oh, that's Lee's food," Amadeo remarked, as if there was nothing odd at all about a beer cooler packed with sealed IV bags of donor blood. These, along with the jeweled medallion that she always wore, and which negated the sun's deadly rays, allowed Lee to maintain a semblance of normalcy. If she didn't feed regularly on the blood collected by the school's Physicians Assistant, Danny Makakoa, Lee would be compelled to hunt in order to quench her vampiric thirst. And that, she had sworn, was not an option. Danny, a shapeshifting mutant from Hawaii, had been working on developing a synthetic blood that could be used in an emergency if no donor supply was available. He'd given a couple variations to Lee to test, and while they did help with the cravings, they also tasted so horrible she could barely gag them down.

"Gross," Bobby muttered, handing the cooler off to Amadeo. "I'll let you carry that, if you don't mind."

Amadeo laughed. "You're cute. A big whiny baby sometimes, but cute." Before Bobby could pout, he gave him a quick but passionate kiss.

"You're a cruel man, 'Deo," Bobby quipped as he grabbed a couple of the suitcases from the trunk.

Harper, being much stronger than the other two, lifted two large trunks from the BMW and carried them into the house like they didn't weigh anything at all.

"Your brother is such a show-off," Bobby grumbled. Amadeo rolled his eyes, and goosed Bobby's ass.

An hour later...

Remy had just finished giving the Grand Tour, when the doorbell rang.

"Ah! Notre dîner est arrivé," he announced. Before they'd left New York, Remy had called ahead to his favorite restaurant. He and the owner, a chef of some renown, went way back. All Remy had to do was say "Augustine, I need a full spread for six adults and two children, delivered ta my house in de District. And pair some wine wit' it, whatever you t'ink goes best. 'Bout 5PM. C'est bon?"

Remy opened the door and let in several people dressed in crisp white uniforms, carrying trays. He'd ordered all his favorites, a real taste of Louisiana: ribs, crawfish, gumbo, jambalaya, dirty rice and red beans, cornbread, corn on the cob, freshly baked rolls and peach cobbler for dessert. As a bonus, Augustine had included a bottle of the finest Kentucky bourbon.

"Damn, Remy! You planning on feeding an army?" Bobby asked as he took a seat at the table beside Amadeo.

"Well, de way you eat, I reckoned I best get extra," Remy winked at Bobby.

"I'm a growing boy. Ask my boyfriend," Bobby said, hooking his thumb in Amadeo's direction.

For some reason, Harper found this hilarious, and actually laughed. Loud laughter punctuated by snorts. It was so unusual for Harper to do this, that everyone turned to stare at him, even Christopher, who was munching on an ear of corn. The little boy's eyes got wide, and he started to laugh along with him.

Harper realized everyone was looking at him. "What? It was funny." Still chuckling at whatever it was that had tickled him so, Harper picked out a few items for Christopher to try, even one of the crawfish, which made him squeal with delight. After securely tying a napkin around his son's neck, Harper proceeded to pile food on his own plate. This seemed to break the weird tension, and everyone dove in, with the exception of Jono. Not only had his mutant power left him disfigured, it had also robbed him of some of life's little pleasures, like eating and drinking, even breathing.

Lee gave Jono a careful look; she always worried about how it must feel for him, watching others eat. Jono sensed her eyes on him, and flashed her his version of a smile: crinkled eyes under raised brows. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze, then went back to helping Shogo with the strange new foods.

She and Jono had been friends for years, since their days with Generation X. She'd always found him attractive, despite the damage to his face. Even uncovered, you couldn't see the affected areas, as they were hidden by the flames of white-hot fire that emanated from the psionic furnace in his chest. Most of the time, he kept it covered, lately with a simple woolen scarf. Despite that, he was obviously handsome, with a mop of unruly brown hair that framed his face and often fell in his eyes, which were a warm shade of brown, incredibly expressive, and fringed with thick lashes. His nose was long and straight, cheekbones high and well defined. And his body! Lee sighed, remembering the first time she'd seen him naked. The boy was so beautiful.

*You feelin' alright, luv?* Jono asked, looked at Lee with concern. She seemed a little drawn, light circles under eyes. Her skin was pale, even for her. *Did yer eat?*

Lee was touched by his concern. "Yes, I ate. You're such a mother hen sometimes, Jono." She tapped his nose with her finger. "Just a little tired is all."

*Well, why don't yer go get some rest. I'll see ter Shogo.* As soon as Jono said that, Shogo took that moment to launch a handful of rice into his hair. Jono sighed dramatically. *See? Everyfing's under control.*

Lee raised her eyebrows at that. Jono thought that her eyes, dark brown, almost black, and almond shaped, were her best feature. Lee was from Hong Kong, a slight, delicately built woman, though her small stature belied her impressive strength. As a vampire, she possessed all their supernatural abilities. She could move so fast, if you blinked, you might miss her. She was also incredibly strong, and nearly indestructible, vulnerable only to a direct strike to her heart, or unprotected exposure to the sun.

"You sure about this? I…" Lee stopped and yawned, exposing her long, sharp canines. Jono chuckled.

*We'll be fine, luv. No worries.* He ducked another handful of rice. *Oi! That's enough o' that, young man.* Shogo giggled in return. Jono shook his head and handed him a piece of cornbread slathered with fresh peach jam. With Shogo now fully involved in stuffing it in his face, Jono turned back to Lee. *Go on. I've got this.*

"Thanks, Jono." Lee pressed a quick kiss to Jono's cheek, then excused herself from the table. "Gonna catch a nap," she called over her shoulder as she climbed to stairs to the room that had been set aside for her, Jono and Shogo.

"Is your amoreaux alright?" Remy asked, looked at Jono with concern. Jono waved his hand.

*She's good. Just a bit tired, is all. Winter nights are right 'ard on the lass, especially wif the full moon coming. Makes the tidal bloodpull even stronger.*

"Yeah, but Jubes is stronger than that," Bobby said. He held up one of the crawfish and waved it at Remy. "How am I supposed to eat this again?"

"Well, first you eat de tail, den you take de head, and you suck like dis." Remy demonstrated the proper head-sucking procedure. Bobby went a little green.

"Oh HELL no. I'm not eating its brains," Bobby cast a suspicious eye at the steamed crustaceans on his plate. "I'll eat the part I recognize."

Christopher was studying the crawfish in his hand. "Papa? Do I have to eat its brain?" He made a funny little face.

Remy laughed. "Non, petit. You eat what you want. Here, try dis." He slathered one of the still-hot rolls with honey butter and handed it to him. Christopher took a big bite and beamed with delight. "You like dat?"

"Oui, Papa! Le pain est très bon!"

Remy and Harper exchanged surprised looks. Harper couldn't help but grin.

"Where'd you learn that?" Harper asked.

"Monsieur Beaubier taught me. And I learned from Papa, too," Christopher said, shrugging, like it was no big deal.

Shogo, wanting to show off his verbal skills, piped up: "Bloody 'ELL!"

You could have heard a pin drop. Jono covered his face with his hands for a moment, then looked at Shogo. *Well, at least you dinnit say that in front o' yer mum."

"Lucky for you, the boy has impeccable timing," Amadeo drawled.

The group burst into laughter, mostly at the look of despair on Jono's face. After dinner, the children were put to bed. Lee re-joined them, and Remy cracked open the bourbon. He got a fire going in the cavernous fireplace in the front room, and they settled in for a quiet evening. Each couple found a comfortable spot, snuggled up with the other, watching the fire and telling stories. The more bourbon they drank, the wilder and more bawdy the stories got. Even Jono, who couldn't drink, joined in, telling some pretty wild tales from his time as a youth in London.

It was a moment of well-earned peace and camaraderie for them. Unfortunately, they had no idea how soon their world was about to be turned upside-down, as there is never any rest for the wicked. Or the X-Men.